There is plenty to like about it, but again, nothing really for solo players. You can’t even Ninja mine the Moon chunk asteroid belts without the Refinery Owners getting a detailed log about what you were up to – or likely being able to shoot you in the Belt from the Refinery.

CCP did a second Structure blog which was more self-congratulatory than informative, but there were some statistics and a link to a survey worth looking at.

Unless you are hiding under a rock, you would be aware PLEX changes are inbound. I’m not going to talk about the mechanics, but I think it is a good idea to get rid of Aurum. I’m not sure why CCP made so obvious miss steps in their initial Dev Blog. The first and follow up Dev Blogs are below:

The CSM 12 elections are in full swing (or at least I assume they are). This year I think my vote will have slightly more value in not being used, so I will be skipping it. CCPs and the CSMs version of “all play styles” has been proven for many years now to be too limited in scope.

I haven’t looked at the new scanning UI changes – most of my MMO time has still been spent in World of Warships. I continue my fascination / dislike of the game. After finally reaching the heights of a sad 50% odd success rating I then lost something like 10 out of 12 battles. This happened immediately after I purchased a year of premium time – sort of like karma laughing at me. There were some obvious reasons for this – I was finding matches more difficult again as people came back from ranked battles, people adjusted their play to the new skill options, plus I moved into some new Tier VII ships and onto new maps I’ve never played before. Despite my wining streak coming to an end, I am finding if I am not sunk in the very first push forward that I often rank towards the top in many of my battles. I’ve found a particular liking for the US Tier VI Battleship New Mexico. The tri-turrets seem to work better for how I aim, and it is so slow that it is more difficult to overextend. Actually – by the time I reach battles it will often be at stalled flanks, and I’ve been able to push my side forward by moving past them in my own version of a charge. The New Mexico can take a pounding and seems particularly deadly in closer combat. I’m sure some of these lessons would help me in EVE PVP.

I paid for a year of premium time in World of Warships – then immediately had 8 or 9 losses in my next 10 battles. I played some really good games, but kept finding myself in teams that needed to be carried, and I am not good enough to do that.

That can get rather frustrating.

EVE has definitely been dropped from the top of the pedestal for both the time and money I put into MMOs. I still play and have an active account, but no longer have that old passion. I tried – I really tried hard to keep it. It has just been too long since much of anything was introduced into the game that I was enthused about.

Who would have guessed that Solo Hermit game play isn’t on CCP’s development radar?

I went right through the CSM11 Summit 2 notes looking for inspiration, but found only a single thing that was particularly interesting. There would be changes to the scanning UI, but nothing fundamental to game play, just tweaks to try correcting earlier mistakes in the design. Mostly this effort however was deflating – with CCP saying things I didn’t like, agreed with and supported by the Null Sec heavy CSM.

I didn’t run a single Guardian’s Gala event site – it was just far too much of the same. Instead I went to Jita towards the end of the event and purchased the handful of skins I liked the look of.

I am however logging in regularly and am working through a To Do List for my newest Alt, but what I am up to doesn’t really seem blog worthy!

After finishing the New Player Experience and running all the Career agent missions, I decided to make a move to a High Sec area with access to lots of Low Security space. It was some 20 jumps away from where I started.

It took me some 150 odd jumps to move 6 fully fitted ships into my new home system, via the Amarr trade hub to tweak fittings. Several times I had to stop and wait for excess gear to sell on the market before I had the money to finish off some of the ships. Not a T2 module in sight, and often a lower Meta level item picked because I couldn’t afford the more expensive ones. It was kind of enjoyable.

One play session might involve making a flight one way between my old and new home. Another session might have been spent in Pfya trying to find a suitable fit with low skill points and little ISK.

When Burn Jita came along I simply did not log in for a week. The alt couldn’t afford to lose one of these ships to a griefing gank.

I’ve ended up with 6 rigged and fitted hulls, a small collection of spares, and around 500,000 odd in ISK (total worth somewhere between 5 and 10 M ISK), ready to start trying to accumulate some wealth.

I have two haulers (one slower with more capacity but less tank, the other faster with less capacity but more tank), a mining frigate, a scanning frigate, and a combat frigate and destroyer for PVE.

BB80 – CCP Seagull encourages everyone to get involved in CSM12. Blogger Neville Smit noted that CSM11 had done a good job with minimum drama, but with only 10 seats available in CSM12 the Null Sec power-blocs will likely take them all. Is he right and will it be a good or bad thing?

I liked the concept of the CSM. I thought it could engage the player base, channel good ideas into CCP, and filter out some of their bad ideas. I remained optimistic for a long time, but that is no longer the case. I think I was pretty naive.

To me the mechanism never seemed to live up to its potential. The CSM members often lacked the personality or skills to be effective advocates. EVE Players attacked their own representatives and gamed and damaged the systems that had been put in place. CCP already seemed set in the direction they wanted to take the game, and only really gave lip service to the CSM.

I assume this lack of impact or influence helped fuel the apparent adversarial relationship between the CSM and CCP.

Even given my perception, I still got value out of the CSM. I liked the flow of information it prompted, both on updates in the pipeline and the general discussion on feature ideas and impacts. In particular, I have read all CSM Summit meeting notes from cover to cover. I could still generally find something to be excited about, and thank the CSM process for the heads up.

In the CSM11 Summit notes I was struck by how much more cordial the relationship seemed between the CSM and CCP. Some years you could feel the palpable friction, but not with CSM11. It seemed so much more productive.

Why? The largest part of CSM11 were Null Sec representatives. Have they been able to marshal the considerable resources of their Alliances to be more organised, professional and influential? Did Null Sec put forward the best of themselves? Did they do a better job of persuading CCP towards their ideas? It seems logical from previous year results that most of the top 10 winners in CSM12 will be from Null Sec. I think Neville will be right in that regard. Does it matter? Might it even be favorable?

Reading the last Summit notes I think the answer became more apparent. There were disagreements and hard questions from the CSM to CCP, must mostly I got the impression they were on the same wavelength.

Was this because CCP suddenly became more flexible in the direction they were taking the game? Did CSM11 feel happier because they were more influential? Or – was it that CSM11 agreed more with what CCP was already doing? I have felt for some years that CCP is focused on a type of conflict in game which makes it easier for the stronger to crush the weaker. The sort of changes the powerful Null Sec groups are more likely to be happier with.

I don’t think it really matters what happens with CSM12. CCP will do what they already planned to do, and the only difference will be the facade cast over the CSM12 term. It will appear productive if they agree with CCP, unproductive if they don’t.

Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) Middle Earth Role Playing game (MERP) was the very first commercial desktop RPG I played. It was licensed through Tolkien Enterprises and was based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I absolutely loved the campaign and adventure modules, and found most to be of high quality.

That was back more than 30 years ago – in my early years of High School. I hadn’t yet started earning money and my Dad hated the idea of the game, so unfortunately I was never able to buy many of the books.

We moved on to ICE’s Rolemaster and Terry Amthor’s Shadow World / Loremaster environment – another setting I loved. I was able to purchase most of these books over time, but the MERP gear was rarely available.

By the time I had gone through Uni, started my career and set up house with my now wife, ICE was headed into bankruptcy, had lost its Tolkien license and there were no more new books released.

I did buy all the Forgotten Realm Setting books for D&D 3.0 and 3.5 versions when they came out. I’ve rarely played games using them, but loved the format and quality of the books. They are easily good enough just to read for reading sake, and sit on my bookcase in great condition. I still regretted however not being able to collect the MERP books.

For the last five odd years I have taken to looking for the MERP books on Ebay. I have now picked up some 40 of the 100 odd products released, most in as new condition. I’ve paid less than $10 for some, more than $60 for others, but mostly between $20 and $40. I’ve seen some books go for more than $100, although they often get relisted again soon after as the more successful auctions don’t seem to go through reliably. It amazes me that you can receive in the mail a book that is 30 odd years old, yet in as new condition.

In the last year or so however nothing new seems to be put up for auction – aside the same old over priced items relisted month after month after month. There are more options overseas, but I’ve tended to stick to the Australian site. I take the approach that if I get lucky, all good – if not, never mind.

Part of the Collection

My history of role playing games certainly plays a big part in why I’ve liked and spent so long in EVE. My experience with collecting MERP books also probably explains why I have purchased most of the books and what not related to EVE when they are released.

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